Ken Russell's 1962 Elgar on BBC Four

[Boilk]

Ken Russell's 1962 biodoc of the composer Edward Elgar (originally done for the 100th edition of BBC's Monitor) will be shown on Friday 20th January.

This was his first composer documentary too. Thanks again to Britain's best TV station, BBC Four.

[Petrushka]

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?4270-Ken-Russell-s-Elgar

[Serial_Apologist]

A most enjoyable programme, though the inexplicable absence of KR's film on Tchaikovsky was noted. Good to have had short clips from the Debussy film - my intro to Russell.

[Chris Newman]

A most enjoyable programme, though the inexplicable absence of KR's film on Tchaikovsky was noted. Good to have had short clips from the Debussy film - my intro to Russell.

Or Mahler and Richard Strauss! Dreadful films

Mind you. I forgive KR for the wonderful Elgar, Bartok, Delius, D.H. Lawrence and Boyfriend.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, lovely piece on KR. I think The Devils is a masterpiece, though often almost impossible to watch! And perfectly matched with Max's score. "Look on this thing which I am, and know what love is" says Grandier (Reed) when they throw him, like a shattered doll, from the cart onto the ground before the nunnery.

I really liked Altered States (with William Hurt) too; and even Mahler leaves you with stunning scenes and images - that hut bursting into flames with the 10th; and remember the touching scene of Mahler in his shadowy study, with the version of the 3rd Kindertotenlieder song, Wenn dein Mutterlein, spoken by Robert Powell... very original, beautifully done.

I loved the line Mahler says to Alma (Georgina Hale):
"You wanted fame; it looks as though you'll have to settle for notoriety!"
Great upbeat ending too, so unexpected on a first viewing - I loved that poetic truth.

Looking forward to Elgar next week.

[Norfolk Born]

ff: might it be a good idea to merge the two threads covering this (and no, I'm not asking just because I started the earlier one )?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Jayne's #5 sums up my feeling about Russell's later work, too. (Frighteningly, I realize that it must be over thirty years since I saw Altered States when it first was released!)

The Mahler, too, is a gem: it was first recommended to me by Mahler scholar Peter Franklin, who adored its positive ending ("That's the real Mahler!") and the combination of the grotesque, sentimental - in both senses of the word - terrifying and defiant in the film's narrative. ("Just like the first movement of the Sixth"). It's (obviously) not a "documentary" in the manner of the Elgar film (neither is A Song of Summer) but a creative artist's response to Music that moved him in ways he couldn't otherwise express. It's often occured to me that the film can be seen as an equivalent to what Berio did with the Scherzo of the Second in his Sinfonia but using the First Movement of the Sixth.

[Serial_Apologist]

An incidental detail: did anyone spot Harrison Birtwistle being interviewed in the programme. Well, to my sheer amazement it was Pete Townsend actually, but I wonder how many others made the same mistake, initially.